Intense Side Stretch Pose
पार्श्वोत्तानासन
Pārśvottānāsana — an intermediate forward bend that works the hamstrings, calves, spinal erectors.
How to do Intense Side Stretch Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Step one foot back about half a leg's length, turning the back foot out around 45 degrees.
Square the hips forward, drawing the front hip back and the back hip forward.
Lengthen the spine, then hinge from the hips over the front leg.
Rest the hands on blocks either side of the front foot, or take them behind the back.
Keep both legs straight and both feet grounded, hold, then change sides.
Hold: 45–90 seconds. Keep the breath moving throughout — if you are holding it, the pose is too much for today.
Muscles worked
Where the effort and the lengthening land. Primary groups do most of the work; secondary groups assist or are stretched.
What Intense Side Stretch Pose does
Described mechanically — what the movement does to muscle and joint. Not a list of conditions it treats, because a pose does not treat conditions.
- Isolates the hamstring of the front leg with the pelvis squared.
- Stretches the calf of the front leg with the heel loaded.
- Trains the hip hinge with a narrow, unstable base.
Intense Side Stretch Pose is one of 22 forward bends in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that fold the torso towards the legs, lengthening the whole back line of the body.
Who should skip Intense Side Stretch Pose, or change it
- Hamstring strain on the front leg.
- High blood pressure — keep the torso above hip height.
- Balance difficulty: widen the stance sideways and use blocks.
- Shoulder injury if taking the hands into reverse prayer behind the back.
General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts. If you are pregnant, recovering from surgery or managing any health condition, ask your doctor before starting a practice, and learn the pose itself from a qualified teacher who can see you move.
Common mistakes in Intense Side Stretch Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeFront knee hyperextending as the fold deepens.
FixKeep a small bend and hold the thigh muscle firm.
MistakeBack hip swinging out to make the fold deeper.
FixCome up until the hips are square again — that is your depth for today.
What a practice like this costs in energy
Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values per style of practice, so Intense Side Stretch Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET — and the figures below are for a practice of that kind, not for holding this one pose.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
Calculated as MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 kcal per minute — the standard ACSM relationship, shown in full on the method page. Scale it to your own weight by multiplying by your weight in kilograms and dividing by 70. The whole activity dataset, including every non-yoga activity, is at BurnLab.
Questions
How do you do Intense Side Stretch Pose?
Step one foot back about half a leg's length, turning the back foot out around 45 degrees. Square the hips forward, drawing the front hip back and the back hip forward. Lengthen the spine, then hinge from the hips over the front leg. Rest the hands on blocks either side of the front foot, or take them behind the back. Keep both legs straight and both feet grounded, hold, then change sides. Hold for 45–90 seconds.
What does Intense Side Stretch Pose work?
Primarily the hamstrings, calves, spinal erectors, with the glutes, shoulders, hip flexors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: isolates the hamstring of the front leg with the pelvis squared.
Who should not do Intense Side Stretch Pose?
Hamstring strain on the front leg. High blood pressure — keep the torso above hip height. Balance difficulty: widen the stance sideways and use blocks. Shoulder injury if taking the hands into reverse prayer behind the back. This is general information, not medical advice — if any of these apply to you, ask your doctor and learn the pose with a qualified teacher rather than from a page.
Is Intense Side Stretch Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Intense Side Stretch Pose is rated intermediate here: it assumes a working base of strength and range, and a teacher who has watched you move. Build up through the forward bends poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Intense Side Stretch Pose burn?
The honest answer is that nobody has measured a single asana. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values for styles of yoga, not for individual poses. Intense Side Stretch Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02150, yoga, Hatha, at 2.5 MET — about 92 kcal for 30 minutes of that kind of practice for a 70 kg adult. Holding one pose for a minute is a rounding error either way.
Sequences that use Intense Side Stretch Pose
Related poses
More forward bends — first at the same level, then the rest of the family.
Asana names are traditional. Every step, benefit and caution on this page is written for YogaPath rather than reproduced from any book, studio or other library — see how this site is written. Energy figures derive from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts.